El Yunque

Hello There!

In between boat jobs we are attempting to be tourists as well. So with that state of mind, we set out for the el Yunque National Forest. It's a big chunk of the eastern middle of the island. It's a huge rain forest - the biggest in all of the US?

It's not a big drive but all along the 15 km route there are spots to stop for hikes, swims, viewpoints. Very cool. We did the drive... short hike... and came away very impressed.

Mountain pool - constructed around 1942 

Dam pool - or pool dam

Construction up in the jungle

Studly waterfall

More of the dam pool

el Yonque down to the sea

There are lots of very challenging hikes and cool places to swim in mountain pools. That's not currently on our list of things to do.

But this is...

Cervezas

Unfortunately we made the mistake of ordering lunch - which ended up being far more than we would ever eat for dinner, let alone lunch. We've got to start ordering one meal and sharing it.

But, back to boat jobs...

Varnishing
Pam is the Queen of Varnish. So right away she's talking about getting 3 coats over the entire boat. (I'd be happy with two.) And, off we go. We have to dodge the rain showers that happen all the time, out of the blue. "These squalls come on you fast and leave you fast, Boss!" (A quote from Captain Ron.) So we've been lucky so far but some of our fresh varnish has pretty rain drops over it.

The Varnish Queen

Love the way rain beads on new varnish

We're hoping to get a little more done before we fly home Thursday.

Otto
We took Otto's ram into a hydraulic shop for new seals and fluid. They filled the reservoir with fluid but not the ram. So I have to bleed the fluid in. But, not to worry, they've given me lots of fluid in a seriously scientific container.

Otto and a Coke bottle of hydraulic fluid

Using the pump to introduce the fluid and bleed the lines.

Post script to this fun little activity. They put it together backwards. So the pusher end is on the wrong side. Great fun! I took it in first thing Monday and they fixed it while I waited. It's back in place but I'm struggling to get it to behave. Grrrr.

Almost back together

Sink
We've been looking forward to a new sink. This stainless steel sink is rusted through and from underneath looks like a rust monster. So, new sink, new faucets. Sounds lovely, right?

I decided to pay to have it done 'cause under the sink is a bitch and I'm not agile enough to clamber around in there. I thought I'd pay someone who does this all the time and they will do it right and they know the tricks of the trade. Well, at $100 US per hour he ran into trouble and can't figure out how to stop a leak. I'm perfectly capable of not being able to fix something and I can do it (or not) for nothing. So that's a bother. Grrrrr.

But it sure looks nice!

Old Sink - see the rust in the left sink?

Rust!

Lots of rust

Cleaning up for new parts

Almost in and done!

RiggingThe riggers identified 3 or 4 issues that should be tended to. So we are going to go ahead with those things in the time we've got left here. Maybe. I've been waiting to pay them for the previous work but I can 't get them to respond to my texts. Grrrr.

We are looking forward to finding closure on some of these big items and getting a few more little things done. Only a couple more days and we are on our way home to spend the holidays with our family and friends. How great is that???!!!